Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 53-year-old Gerald May of Lake View has been sentenced by State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller to the maximum one and one-third to four years in prison for starting a fire that spread to a neighbor’s home.

In December 2016, May pleaded guilty to Arson in the Fourth Degree, which is intentionally starting a fire which recklessly damages a building.

On April 18, 2016, when May lived in Hamburg, he started trash on fire in his driveway which was next to his neighbor’s attached garage. The fire spread to a wooden fence and the eaves of the neighbor’s garage, severely burning its walls and roof. The rest of the neighbor’s house filled with smoke, and the residents, 33-year-old Kerrie Aquino and her elderly father, Vincent Aquino, who required a wheelchair, had to escape.

The fire caused $7,575 in damage to the Aquinos’ home, and they had to move out while the house was repaired.